Records of Dungeon Travel

#100. The Thing Left Behind by the Ancient Lords

Kim Jin-Woo sat on the Throne of Truth, his expression as hard as stone. He muttered, “The Spear of Mortality, huh…”

It was a terrifying name that seemed unsuited for a tree branch too small and unassuming to even be called a spear.

“It is a branch of a clan that could not even grow a leaf because it was not bound by the laws of the Underworld, but that is precisely why it is an object that cannot be stopped by any power or law.”

It was an unbelievable story, but there must have been a reason why even the One-Eyed Lord, who was a Highlord himself, had been so afraid of the weapon that he had locked it up in the Eternal Treasury for good.

“Mhmm.”

The fact that this weapon, which he had obtained by chance, held a power greater than he had expected was highly beneficial to him. But despite that, the expression on his face was darker than ever.

It was because the creator of the spear was the ancient ghost he had tried to avoid for so long.

“The Lord, who was wandering aimlessly in the Underworld, personally visited our clan and cut off the branches of the youngest member in our clan.”

“No way…”

“The Wandering Lord is the one who created this bizarre spear.”

His ominous premonitions were never wrong, and they had been right again this time. The spear made from the branches of the youngest member of the Frost Treant Clan was a legacy of the Wandering Lord.

“What the hell were you planning to do with this?”[a]

What made him even more troubled was that it might not be the only weapon of Mortality.

“The Wandering Lord departed with the child the Underworld rejected. It was a terrible curse that the child did not receive the blessings of the Underworld, but if he was with the Wandering Lord, there is a chance that the child may have survived and grown up by now.”

The Frost Treants had asked him to find the missing child of their clan, but he had been unable to answer their request.

Kim Jin-Woo had simply encountered the small spear completely by chance in the Eternal Treasury, so how could he find the missing Frost Treant in the vastness of the Underworld? Moreover, even if he could find the child, it would be foolish of him to search for the traces of the Wandering Lord, whom he should have been avoiding as much as possible in the first place.

“Urgh.”

He was tempted to sacrifice a part of his body to the Throne of Truth right away to retrieve the missing piece of the puzzle, but he managed to resist the urge.

In any case, when the time came, the truth would be revealed, and he saw no need to specifically look for it. He only hoped he wouldn’t be consumed by the truth.

And he had confidence in himself, because he was the Lord of Greed. He was the one who was going to do the eating, not the one who would be eaten.

***

Kim Jin-Woo moved the surface labyrinth back to the Underworld, and the Frost Treants and Lee Jun-Young also returned with it. Although Lee Jun-Young was momentarily happy to have seen familiar faces again, she was still burdened by the fact that she might have to fight against the surface.

“In the worst case scenario, if you’re unwilling, I’ll take you out of my military forces,” Kim Jin-Woo told her.

It wasn’t that he was being extra mindful toward her. Having now gained an army that was incomparably more powerful than before, he had no time to waste on merely a single dungeon baby.

Lee Jun-Young must have realized that fact, as she seemed even more miserable afterward. She insisted, “I was just a little confused, that’s all.”

She seemed to be more concerned about becoming worthless to Kim Jin-Woo than turning hostile toward the other humans. She belatedly made up her mind.

Kim Jin-Woo accepted her decision without hesitation, adding, “I simply hope you won’t regret your decision.”

He found himself laughing at his own words. Even he was finding the decision uneasy when he was already so heavily committed to the Underworld, so how much more pain would Lee Jun-Young be feeling? However, he saw no need to verbalize those thoughts.

“Looks like I have to change the plan. I’ll put off clearing up the vicinity for the moment,” he said.

Having gathered his top members of his army, he made a declaration. With a few words, the war of conquest, which had seemed ready to begin at any moment, was postponed indefinitely.

“They’ll give their lives to fight for me without knowing it,” he remarked.

He sent messengers to each Duke-level labyrinth and above to inform them of the situation on the surface.

“Do you think a war will really happen?” Dominique asked.

“For now, it’s very likely. The humans up there are far greedier than the labyrinth masters down here. They must be thinking about how to suck this Underworld dry under the sleazy guise of protecting their own homeland,” Kim Jin-Woo replied.

Kim Jin-Woo didn’t think he would lose. As it had been in the past, the Terrans weren’t suited to fighting in the Underworld, even if the Underworld was now drastically different from before.

Unless the Underworld beings were the ones to leave the Underworld first, the army from the surface would easily be defeated without being able to use half of their firepower.

However, what Kim Jin-Woo was worried about was the aftermath of the war, not the war itself. If someone was instigating this war, what was their intention? That was the biggest question.

“Maybe this is also part of the process of breaking down the boundary between the surface and the Underworld,” Dominique mused.

Her opinion seemed rather plausible. As the existences of the Underworld and the surface mixed, the boundary would continue to be blurred, and in that sense, it was highly likely that the actions of the countless explorers who had already skimmed through the Underworld had intentionally been caused by that certain someone who was pulling the strings behind the scenes.

If there were ever an effective way to thwart that someone’s plan, it would be to deter the war itself. But at that moment, there was no way to actually do so; thus, Kim Jin-Woo decided to conserve his power to the fullest while preparing for any contingency.

Not long after, the messengers who had left with the news of the surface returned one after another.

None of the Dukes feared an invasion, and they had no doubts that the invaders, if an invasion ever happened, would be defeated by the forces of the Lesser and Middle Floors. But despite that, there was an atmosphere in the air that acknowledged the need to establish a close cooperative relationship just in case.

“Does this mean that even though their own neighbors are more ferocious than the Terrans from the surface, they still find their fellow Underworld beings to be more trustworthy?” Dominique wondered.

Considering that they were all Underworld beings in the end, the will to unite against a common enemy in this situation wasn’t absent.

“But we can’t completely trust them. After all, we can’t tell which of them are working for the Usurper,” Kim Jin-Woo muttered.

Now that Ariane had stabbed him in the back several times and even Yoon-Hee, whom he had thought he could trust, had turned her back on him, he was more cautious than ever.

Eventually, he remarked, “No, we shouldn’t be afraid of those cocky Dukes now. The real threats are the Usurper and the Highlords, since we have no idea what they’re planning on doing.”

In other words, it was imperative that he meet the other Highlords that he had never met before. However, there was no way of finding them when he didn’t even know where they were, so for now, he could only hope the Wailing Lord could perform her duty as his messenger.

While Kim Jin-Woo was busy preparing for the war, Morrigan showed up to visit him and asked, “Have you yet to encounter the White Raven?”

She told him the White Raven was among the Einherjar, and asked for a meeting. With the realization that the White Raven was closer to him than he had thought, Kim Jin-Woo gladly met up with her.

“So you’re the White Raven? You look different from what I expected,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

“In the hope that my King’s eyes would not lose their purity due to my hideous appearance, I dared not appear openly before my King. If you wish, I will reveal to you my ugly body right now,” the White Raven replied.

Although the White Raven had restored most of her powers as an Einheri, it seemed even the powers of Valh?ll couldn’t completely restore her broken body. Her whole body was wrapped in pure white bandages, with only a pair of blue and red eyes revealing themselves through the gaps.

“If you don’t want to, there’s no need to, because I didn’t look for you for your appearance.” Having said that, Kim Jin-Woo immediately went to the matter at hand. “Morrigan didn’t know as much as I had hoped. She said that you, having served your former master closely by his side, would be able to answer my questions.”

“I sincerely apologize, but I once lost myself and became a wanderer roaming the Underworld, and thus I have lost much of my memories,” the White Raven replied. It was a regrettable thing to hear.

“Is that so? How unfortunate,” Kim Jin-Woo remarked, with an obviously disappointed expression. The White Raven bowed her head and repeatedly apologized, but he continued, “It’s fine. In fact, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”

If he had met the White Raven before he obtained Valh?ll, things might have been different. He couldn’t help but feel that his meeting with the White Raven was just a little too late.

The ancient memory he was most curious about had already been shown to him by the Throne of Truth, and the legacy of the One-Eyed Lord that he had been searching for so long was now already in his possession.

“I have lost many of my memories, but I still have many things to tell my King,” the White Raven said.

However, even after hearing her claim, Kim Jin-Woo didn’t expect much. He simply raised his head and waited for the White Raven to continue speaking.

The White Raven continued, “My old master said that in the deepest depths of the Underworld, the King will find what he needs.”

“Tell me more in detail.” Kim Jin-Woo, who had sunk into the Throne, found himself sitting up ever so slightly, with a composure completely different from just seconds before.

“My old master was concerned about the future of the Underworld, and he offered a precious sacrifice, so he must have already known of my King’s existence at that point in time,” the White Raven said.

“He sacrificed his eye to the Throne of Truth!” Kim Jin-Woo exclaimed. had been curious about the Truth the One-Eyed Lord learned of after sacrificing one of his eyes all this time. But he had found a clue about it in an unexpected place.

“So what’s in the deepest depths of the Underworld? No, rather, what was the truth he saw?” he asked, looking at the White Raven impatiently.

“I don’t know what he saw, but he said that a humble servant would appear before the King when needed the most, and one word from that servant would prove itself useful as the King’s servant,” the White Raven answered. Ultimately, that simply meant she didn’t know what the truth was.

“Fucking Ancient Lords, none of them knew how to get straight to the point.” Kim Jin-Woo cursed at the now-disappeared One-Eyed Lord. “In the end, that just means I have no choice but to go and see for myself, huh?”

Still, having found a clue when everything seemed to be shrouded in mist was a great gain.

“If it’s the deepest depths of the Underworld…” he muttered.

That was where So-Hee, the Immoral Lord, formerly the Lord of Benevolence and now called the Usurper, resided.

Kim Jin-Woo had finally found a clue that explained the dizzying situation of the Underworld, but he didn’t act hastily. He had been deceived so much that he couldn’t trust the White Raven’s words completely.

“It’s too dangerous. It could be a trap laid by the Usurper.” Dominique also expressed strong concerns and discouraged him, saying that even the White Raven’s existence might be part of the deceit as well.

“I guarantee that she is real.” Morrigan pledged her own honor and guaranteed the authenticity of the White Raven, but given the current situation, Kim Jin-Woo found himself unable to put too much stock in her words.

“Even if the White Raven is real, even if the words of the One-Eyed Lord that she conveyed are true, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a dangerous situation,” Dominique said.

Morrigan’s anger flared up. However, considering the undeniable truth behind Dominique’s words, Morrigan found herself unable to rebuke her.

“The One-Eyed Lord was involved in the delusion of uniting the Underworld and the surface, and it’s highly likely that his wishes don’t match what Master desires.” Dominique glared at Morrigan with a look of resentment before attempting to persuade her master again. She was terrified at the thought of her master throwing himself into a possible trap set up by the Usurper.

“My King!” While the summons were arguing over his next course of action, Quantus, who was in charge of defending the perimeters of the Grand Labyrinth, came running toward them. He announced, “The Wailing Lord has returned!”

“Perfect timing.” Kim Jin-Woo got up from his throne, looking tired from the lengthy discussion. “I’ll meet her. Lead the way.”

“Ah, but the thing is…” Quantus looked at him before continuing, “There are others who have come with the Wailing Lord!”

[a]KJW talking to himself but addressing the Wandering Lord in a way